Information and Imagery from Ukraine

The ten richest people in the Prosecutor General’s Office

On Friday, 12 December, the Novoye Vremya online newspaper published an article called “Golden Ten: The richest functionaries of the Prosecutor General’s Office have been named.” Prosecutor General Vitaly Yarema, who had previously called for the salaries of officials in his office to be raised, was declared to have had an annual salary in 2013 of over $45,000. While this sum is equivalent to the starting annual pay of a state high school teacher in the United States, it is high for Ukraine, where salaries for even white-collar workers are usually below $200 per month. A salary of $3,000 per month in Ukraine allows a person to live in relative luxury, even in the capital, Kyiv. The cost of living is very low. Below, the salaries in Ukrainian hryvnia (UAH) are divided by eight and put in brackets [] to give a rough approximation of the dollar equivalent for much of 2013. Ukraine has experienced 100% inflation in the space of a year, so these figures would not be the same today. But as it is, they immediately give rise to the question: why did such officials need to take bribes when their official salaries gave them every opportunity to live very well within their own country, including travel abroad, and when other privileges and benefits were provided by the state?

The Office of the Prosecutor General (OPG) has disclosed the first full declaration of income for all of its employees of the central office, reports LIGABusinessInform.

Prosecutor General Vitaly Yarema declared 361,943 UAH [$45,242.88] income for 2013. He had previously announced his intention to increase the salaries of prosecutors.

It is also noteworthy that Deputy Prosecutor General Oleh Bachun declared a lack of income for 2013. In the graph for gifts, prizes and winnings, he indicated the amount of 5,862,857 UAH [$732,857.13].